As Republican lawmakers take tentative steps forward on climate change, Trump’s budget would drag them back.
Most GOP voters support climate action, recent polls show, and Republican lawmakers want to shed the party’s reputation for rejecting the scientific consensus on global warming.
But the White House budget proposal released this week would eliminate or cut funding for climate, clean energy and efficiency research, even as Republican lawmakers on Wednesday offered the first pieces of what they say will be an effective legislative response to global warming.
While Congress will almost certainly disregard the cuts pushed by the White House, the proposal nevertheless reflects President Donald Trump’s priorities as leader of the Republican Party. That’s likely to mute and confuse the message House Republicans are trying to send, said Bob Inglis, a former Republican congressman who now leads an organization, RepublicEN, advocating for free-market climate solutions. Continue reading.